1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an air conditioner for a vehicle, and in particular to an air conditioner that minimizes temperature difference between mixed airs fed to different outlets.
2. Description of the Related Art
Car air conditioning systems have been known for many years. A car air conditioning system is generally provided with a vent outlet, a defrost outlet and a foot outlet, which have to be supplied with not only solely warm air or solely cool air but also both warm air and cool air. When both warm air and cool air are fed to these outlets, these airs have to be mixed upstream of the outlets and then fed to the outlets as a mixed air, because if the warm air and the cool air are separately supplied to the outlets, the desired air temperature cannot be obtained at the outlets.
Thus, in order to meet this requirement, conventional car air conditioning systems utilize, for example, a structure as shown in FIG. 1.
As illustrated, a car air conditioner 1 comprises an air conditioner housing 2 provided at its upstream portion with an air intake 3 into which ambient air and/or recirculated air from the car""s passenger compartment is introduced. An evaporator 4 is provided downstream of the air intake 3 and a heater core 5 is provided downstream of the evaporator 4. A vent outlet 6 and a foot outlet 7 are provided downstream of the evaporator 4 and above the heater core 5.
A first pivoted valve 8 for selectively directing cool air from the evaporator 4 to the vent outlet 6 and the foot outlet 7 and/or the heater core 5 is provided in a first passage defined between the evaporator 4 and the heater core 5.
A second pivoted opening/closing valve 9 is provided downstream of the first pivoted valve 8 for opening and closing the vent outlet 6 and for selectively directing mixed air composed of cool air from the evaporator 4 and hot air from the heater core 5 to the vent outlet 6 and/or the foot outlet 7.
A third pivoted opening/closing valve 11 is provided downstream of the second pivoted valve 9 for opening and closing the foot outlet 7 and for selectively directing the mixed air coming from the second pivoted valve 9 to the foot outlet 7 and/or a defrost outlet 10 provided below second pivoted valve 9. A fourth pivoted opening/closing valve 12 is provided for opening and closing the defrost outlet.
In designing and producing cars, the manufacturer needs to provide the passenger(s) with as comfortable a cabin space as possible. In view of this need, the car air conditioning system is required to be downsized as much as possible.
The air conditioning system 1 was designed to satisfy this requirement for compactification. Owing to the compactification, however, the air conditioning system 1 cannot provide sufficient mixing space for mixing the hot air heated by passing through the heater core 5 and the cool air not passing therethrough.
Therefore, when the mixed air is supplied to, for example, the vent outlet 6 and the foot outlet 7 in the air conditioning system 1 shown in FIG. 1, most of the cool air not passing through the heater core 5 flows into the vent outlet 6 while most of the hot air from the heater core 5 flows into the foot outlet 7. Consequently, these outlets cannot supply the mixed air at the desired temperature and the vehicle passenger(s) may feel uncomfortable due to the fact that there is a considerable difference between the temperature of the mixed air blown from the vent outlet 6 and that of the mixed air from the foot outlet 7.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an air conditioner for a vehicle capable of minimizing temperature difference between mixed airs to be fed to different outlets.
The present invention achieves this object by providing an air conditioner for a vehicle comprising an air conditioner housing; an air intake formed in said air conditioner housing; an evaporator disposed downstream of said air intake; a heater core disposed downstream of said evaporator; vent and foot outlets formed in said housing downstream of said evaporator; a first passage defined between said evaporator and said heater core; a guide plate disposed downstream of said heater core for directing hot air heated by passing through said heater core toward cool air not passing through said heater core; means for conducting part of said hot air from said heater core guided by said guide plate to said vent outlet and/or for conducting part of said cool air not passing through said heater core to said foot outlet and a first distributing mechanism for opening and closing said vent outlet and for selectively directing mixed air composed of said cool air from said evaporator and said hot air from said heater core guided by said guide plate toward said vent outlet and/or said foot outlet.
In accordance with the air conditioner of the present invention, by means of the conducting means disposed in a space or area insufficient to mix hot air from a heater core and cool air not passing through the heater core, part of the hot air can be forcedly fed to a vent outlet to which a large amount of cool air tends to be fed, and part of the cool air can be forcedly fed to a foot outlet to which a large amount of hot air tends to be fed, thereby minimizing the temperature difference between the mixed airs fed to the respective outlets.
In the present invention, the conducting means preferably comprise a vertical duct member for directing a portion of the hot air from the heater core guided by the guide plate toward the vent outlet and a horizontal duct member for directing a portion of the cool air not passing through the heater core toward the foot outlet.
Additionally, the vertical duct member and the horizontal duct member preferably share at least one constituent wall.
The above and other objects and features of the present invention will be apparent from the following description made with reference to the accompanying drawings showing a preferred embodiment of the present invention.